Hi Neighbors!
Getting a new neighbor comes with a lot of anticipation – wondering what kind of people they will be like and if both families will get along with one another. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long before this woman realized her new next-door neighbor was the most entitled woman she had ever met. Ready to hear about this neighbor vs neighbor feud? Let’s begin.
“Lu” (names have been changed), a mother of two, was excited to get new neighbors. When she first introduced herself to the neighbors, she only got the chance to meet the mother, “Fran” and her seven-year-old son, “Tanner”. She liked the idea that Tanner was around the same age as her own sons, “Billy”, five and “Logan”, ten. She thought since it was summer, Fran and her could arrange playdates here and there for the boys to hang out. Little did she know, that ‘here and there’ turned into an everyday basis forced by none other than Fran.
This was when Fran’s true colors started to show.
~
The Start Of Chaos
One morning, Lu woke up to a knock on her front door. She looked at her clock and saw it was 7:15 am. Who possibly could be knocking that early in the morning? She wasn’t expecting any visitors.
When she opened her front door, she was surprised to see Tanner, standing there nervously.
Lu: “Hey, kiddo! Sorry, the boys aren’t ready to play just yet. Why don’t you come back around later in the day?”
Tanner: “I can’t go back home. My mother already left for work.’
That couldn’t be true. What parent leaves their seven-year-old home alone? So she made several attempts to get a hold of his mom by calling the house phone. This was back when landlines were still a thing. But each call went to their voicemail.
Still, in disbelief, Lu said, “I guess your mother is gone. Why don’t you come inside and eat.”
When his mom came home from work, Lu walked Tanner back home to speak with Fran about the morning incident. She explained to her she had no problems watching Tanner but only occasionally and if asked in advance, just in case she had other plans for that day. Lu didn’t think it was going to be a big deal but then all of a sudden Fran’s whole demeanor changed.
Fran instantly replied, “Well, what else do you have to do all day?”
Did Lu just hear her correctly? Who did this woman think she was? With no hesitation, Lu went on to explain that she works from home on commissions.
Fran rolled her eyes and said, “Being an artist isn’t a real job. Besides, you’re married so you don’t need to work.”
Mind you, Fran also was married and had a job. But Lu ignored the comment and proceeded to stand her ground.
Lu: “Just don’t do that again. You have teenage kids home for the summer, have them babysit.”
Fran: “They work.”
Lu: “So do I!” She left Fran’s home, thinking it would be the last of Tanner’s unexpected morning visits.
End of the story, right? Not so fast.
~
He Was All Alone And Scared
The next morning, there was a knock on Lu’s front door at exactly 7:15 am like the day before. When she opened her door, it was Tanner. Once again.
And once again, when Fran came home from work, Lu went over there to have another talk. This time, Lu demanded she stopped sending Tanner over and reiterated what she said the night before.
Fran snottily replied: “It is your neighborly duty to watch him.”
This took Lu by surprise. What made Fran think it was Lu’s responsibility to watch a child that wasn’t hers?!
“No it is not,” said Lu, as she took a deep breath, “Look! Just don’t do it again. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and no one will be home.”
Fran said angrily: “As a babysitter, you should have given me a notice in advance about this.”
This ticked Lu off. She said in a stern tone, “I’m not a babysitter, let alone YOUR babysitter.” Then stormed back to her house.
The next morning, as planned, Lu and her kids went to the doctor’s office. She didn’t return home until ten. As she pulled into her driveway, she saw someone on her porch. As she got closer, she realized it was poor Tanner, all alone and scared.
Lu was fuming at that point. What kind of mother would knowingly leave her child by themselves for three hours?
When Fran came home from work that night, Lu questioned her reason.
Fran: “You didn’t give me enough time to find another babysitter. This was solely your fault.”
Lu: “I am not a babysitter. Please stop sending him over my house.”
If that day wasn’t already hectic enough, later that night Lu received an out-of-blue call from Fran’s nephew. She had never met this guy before, let alone had given him her phone number. Before she could ask any questions, he started going off on her.
“How you could leave a young boy outside by himself with no consideration of what could have happened to him!” he yelled.
Obviously, he was being told lies. Lu tried to calm him down and explain what actually happened but he kept interrupting her so she eventually hung up on him. Just like his aunt, he wasn’t getting it.
But then again, maybe they were getting the ‘clearly stated’ hint after all – because, for a couple of days, Tanner wasn’t popping up on Lu’s porch anymore. Lu thought the madness was over.
Then she heard a knock on her door. She looked at her clock and saw it was 7:15 am. Uh-oh! Maybe Lu spoke too soon?
~
The Last Straw
It was Tanner, ready to be ‘babysat.’
Poor Tanner. He was a well-behaved and sweet kid. He got along with Lu’s two sons perfectly, so she never had a problem with him. It was his mother who she couldn’t stand. If Fran would just respect Lu’s wishes to call in advance for Tanner to come over then everything would be fine. But no, Fran felt entitled to call the shots and to make Lu feel obligated to watch her own son whenever.
Lu kept persisting Fran to stop these back-and-forth shenanigans but Fran kept insisting that it was Lu’s ‘neighborly duty’ to babysit Tanner. Fran was crazy to think that Lu would believe that ‘neighborly duty’ rubbish. She never agreed to be Tanner’s babysitter, nor was she compensated for the times she HAD to watch him.
Speaking of compensation, this brought an idea to Lu on how she could end this dispute between the two mothers. Since Fran previously stated, “Being an artist isn’t a real job,” Lu thought she could get another job outside of her home to impel Fran to find her an actual babysitter. So when she landed a job interview, she informed Fran to make sure not to send Tanner over that day. Like she had been requesting since day one.
And to Lu’s surprise, she didn’t see Tanner standing on her front porch that morning of the job interview. Good sign, right?
In order to go to her interview, her mother-in-law agreed to watch her sons while she went. After dropping them off inside, Lu went back to her car to head out for the interview when she noticed someone was in her backseat. She couldn’t believe it. It was Tanner. Her psychotic neighbor followed Lu to her mother-in-law’s house then snuck her son in Lu’s car while she dropped her kids off inside. How entitled could someone be to think this was okay?
Not having time to deal with it, Lu asked her mother-in-law if she could watch Tanner too. Unlike Lu, her mother-in-law had a backbone and refused to babysit the boy. So, she had no other choice but to cancel her job interview. This was the last straw for Lu. She couldn’t handle it anymore. Something needed to happen as soon as possible because now Fran’s actions were affecting Lu’s life.
~
She Was Left With Two Choices
Lu thought about calling CPS or the police on Fran but backed out on the idea. She couldn’t do that to Tanner, it would be unfair to put him through that because of his mother’s actions. Then she thought about just taking him to his mother’s job, but she backed out on that idea too. She didn’t want to get Fran in trouble at work.
Maybe Lu needed to take notes from her mother-in-law on how to be more asserative because Fran was taking full advantage of her kindness. Lu realized that too. So when Fran returned home that night, Lu walked over there by herself. This time, she left Tanner at her house with her husband and kids. She didn’t want him to hear what she planned on saying to his mother. As she approached her neighbor’s house, Fran was getting out of her car.
Lu: “You’re dense, stupid, moronic, and a lunatic to pull what you pulled this morning. I lost my job interview because of you.”
Fran tried to get a word in, but Lu cut her off.
Lu: “No you listen. If you send your kid over again, I will call CPS and the police. You are violating my space and if I need to take you to court, so be it.”
There was a short pause.
Then Fran said: “Well if you didn’t want to sit with him, all you had to do was tell me.”
Lu was so close to losing it when Fran said “All you had to do was tell me.” That was what Lu had been doing since day one of this fiasco, but since Lu was threatening to get law enforcement involved this time, now she wanted to be understanding and listen. She was over Fran’s delusional entitlement.
Before Lu did something that she would later regret, she started to walk away. As she reached the end of the driveway, another car pulled in. It was Fran’s husband, “Trey.” Lu never spoke with Trey before, just saw him outside a few times. She remembered when she first met Fran, she mentioned that her husband worked all week and only was home on the weekends. After dealing with Fran this whole time, Lu could understand why he chose that work schedule. She couldn’t bear being near her for too long either.
Fran knew Trey and Lu would cross paths, so she hurried inside her home. She knew what was coming next, she was about to be exposed.
~
“This Won’t Happen Again”
Trey could see the anger plastered on Lu’s face so he got out of his car and asked what had happened.
Lu spilled it all, from Tanner being left on her porch for three hours to her lastest threat to call CPS on his wife. This man looked so lost. Apparently, he was told by his wife that Lu was their babysitter. That whole time, he had been sending her money to pay Lu. Now Lu looked lost.
She told him truthfully that she was never their babysitter nor did she get paid for watching Tanner. He couldn’t believe his wife was lying to him that whole time and what she was doing to Lu. He profusely apologized for his wife’s actions. He even apologized to Lu’s husband when he went to get Tanner from their house.
“This won’t happen again,” he said before leaving Lu’s house.
Unlike his wife, he kept his word – there were no more early morning knocks. Tanner came over once in a while after he called to get permission to play with Lu’s sons. The way Lu initially requested. She was pretty sure Trey had something to do with it all, because it was mostly on weekends Tanner asked to come over. He must have reprimanded her that night for all her wrong doings because since then, Fran avoided Lu at all cost.
Well, to an extent. According to other neighbors, Fran had been spreading rumors around town that Lu was a hellacious babysitter. How she regretted hiring her and how she only hired her because she knew Lu needed a job. Despite the false accusations, Lu knew no one believed her. She lived in a tight community and her other neighbors knew who Lu was as a mother and a person. As time went on, the neighborhood finally saw Fran who she truly was – a crazy, entitled mother who thought she could push her kid on anyone whenever she pleased.
Luckily, Lu no longer had to deal with Fran’s shengagians any more.
~
